Suicidal man was saved by a taser

A MAN who shot a security guard and two cars during a failed suicide attempt has been spared a prison sentence. Russell Kershaw, 42, of Smith Street, was arrested in April after firing pellets from an upstairs window at his home with an air rifle.

A MAN who shot a security guard and two cars during a failed suicide attempt has been spared a prison sentence.

Russell Kershaw, 42, of Smith Street, was arrested in April after firing pellets from an upstairs window at his home with an air rifle.

Police stormed the house and after using a taser gun in an attempt to subdue Kershaw, officers saw the defendant attempt to hang himself with a rope set up in the upstairs of the house.

Judge Charles Bloom QC, sitting at Bury, described the incident as the result a ‘psychotic episode’ and ‘an attempt to draw attention as a prelude to suicide’.

Judge Bloom described how Mr Kershaw had begun to take amphetamines after the break-up of a relationship with his partner, with whom he had a daughter.

Officers were alerted to the incident by the defendant’s father, who owned the air rifle and feared for his son’s safety after realising it was missing.

Two police officers were en route to the scene when Kenneth Green, who was patrolling the adjacent Weldon Homes building development, was shot in the back by Kershaw, who also went on to shoot two passing cars.

After an hour-long siege, police entered the house and stunned Kershaw with a taser gun, but he managed to run upstairs where he had set up a noose above a stepladder.

Kershaw put his head into the noose and tried to push away the ladder when officers stunned him again and took him into custody.

During the incident on the evening of April 27, a large part of the town centre between Manchester Street and Church Street was cordoned off and two police units were called.

Mr Green was treated at Rochdale Infirmary for puncture wounds.

Mr Kershaw, who pleaded guilty to counts of possessing a weapon with intent to cause injury and criminal damage in October, was given a two-year community order with one year’s supervision, as well as being ordered to pay compensation to Mr Green and for criminal damage to a car.

He had already served seven months in prison on remand.

Judge Bloom described the case as one with ‘wholly unusual mitigating and unique circumstances’.

He told Kershaw: "You did not really attempt to hurt anybody with the pellets you fired and during a mental breakdown, you wanted to cause the police to shoot you because you wanted your life to end."